Mayor Olaf Scholz honors Hamburg as an international location for medical research

The Hamburg-based biotechnology company Indivumed GmbH is celebrating its 15th anniversary in the fight against cancer with a festive event on 7 April in the presence of Hamburg's First Mayor Olaf Scholz and international guests from science and business. As one of the first companies in the world, Indivumed focused very early on the development of personalized cancer therapies. In a unique and high-quality way, tissue samples and disease data from over 10,000 patients are collected annually with clinics, oncology practices and universities in Europe, North America and Asia. The scientific significance and comparability of the analysis data form a unique basis for the deciphering of cancer and the development of drugs and diagnostics. With the help of new IT and bioinformatics solutions and cooperation with leading research institutions, the data are to be evaluated and made available to scientists in industry and academia. The importance of Indivumed for the development of new treatment procedures has recently received special recognition at the American Cancer Congress on 2 April 2017 in Washington DC. There, the scientists from Johns Hopkins University around Prof. Bert Vogelstein, together with Prof. Hartmut Juhl and Indivumed, received the "International Team Award" for the pioneering, fundamental work on the development of the "Liquid Biopsy" - a new revolution that revolutionizes cancer diagnostics Method for measuring mutations in cancer from a blood sample.

Mayor Olaf Scholz emphasizes: "For many years, Hamburg has been promoting innovation, growth and employment in sustainable economic areas through an active cluster policy. And such a policy can only work on the basis of transparent and trusting strategic collaboration between partners. We are making good progress with this and I can now point to Indivumed as a very good example of what the Hamburg Biotech location stands for. The fact that you employ 100 people at the Hamburg site is one of these key successes. Indivumed is closely networked in Hamburg and engages with the cross-state cluster "Life Science North".

With the founding of IndivuTest GmbH, Indivumed has recently been equipped with a special diagnostic laboratory, which makes the latest findings of cancer research available to a personalized medicine oncologists and their patients. It is expected that at least a part of this innovative diagnostics will soon be taken over by the health insurance companies.